Kenny: That is the sole reason I'm playing so damned much

Molina : The one 5-10 table I'm on always seems to be the one with the most action, so I'm really likin it so far. The games seem a bit more aggressive than 3-6, so I imagine things might get a smidge more swingy when I completely move up there...but I do think I may actually get a higher winrate there than I do at 3-6. Time will tell!

Piers : Seriously, just to think...had I hit that massive quads draw against ya...ah well, I guess sometimes even the best draws miss

Burger : I hope you learned a bit from watching that hand. Obviously, the EP raiser with QQ should've just mucked as my all-in reraise from the BB really couldn't signify any hand other than a dominating offsuit connector. Just goes to show, you get some really bad play at these tables.

-TW

Well, it was a pretty short day for the wadster, mainly due to a 7-hour gas station shift being stuck in the middle, but I still managed 5 hours. Kinda wish I hadn't, heh heh. My earlier session netted me about $100 despite being outplayed viciously by piers on a couple occasions (and, in all fairness, sodomized viciously on a couple other )...my post-work session, well, it was just ugly. Quick rundown to follow!

QQ cold-called by 65o, who flops two pair.
JJ called by 64o outta the BB...flop is T-9-5 and he pulls a lovely runner-runner 3-7 job to beat me.
KK rivered by 99 in a nice $141 3-6 pot.
ATo (shut up, peirs...I know, I know ) rivered by 99 in a $94 5-10 pot
JJ yet again...this time 84s flops an 8 and turns a 4!

I should note at this point that my opponent was the same damned guy in the QQ hand and both JJ hands.

Ugly stuff indeed, and a session result that certainly shows it! Lost a bit over 200 in my night-time session, so about 100 down for the day. And hey, with the way this week has gone, I really ain't gonna sweat a $100 loss! Especially because I feel I played well and avoided tilt during all this nonsense...frustrated a couple times, but for the first time in quite a while I actually had enough distance to kinda just laugh about it.

I think that really just shows how important it is to have a nice, cushy bankroll. About a month ago, my bankroll and checking account were both in such dire straits that I couldn't afford to move down in limits, nor could I afford to have a losing week! That's a lot of stress pressure to be under (self-inflicted stress and pressure, I grant you), and it's also something that I never want to have to deal with again. I feel really great about my play right now, and even better about the fact that I don't need to win every time I play. I may be on a pretty nice rush right now, but let's not discount the peace of mind that comes with not NEEDING to be on a rush just to scrape by. As Roy Cooke would say, life is good.

Current limit : 3-6 / 5-10 LHE
Current Bankroll : 3631

-TW

Well, I finished the week with a big ol' 8 hour session today. Seemed like it was gonna be all for naught, but I had a nice rush near the end and wound up booking a pretty nice $275 win. About $240 of that came from my 5-10 table...did I mention I'm liking 5-10? Well I am. Anyways, here come some ALWAYS-EXCITING weekly numbers!

Hours played...51:12 <-----BANG!
Total gain...$1603 <-----Also BANG!
Hourly rate...$31.30/hour <-----A reasonable degree of BANG!

Well, wowza! Broke my previous records for both hours played and total gain this week, which is pretty fuckin hot! Since I'm slidin into 5-10 range, I'm uppin my cashouts to $400, which still leaves me very healthily in 3K territory. If next week goes as well as this one...or hell, even half as well, then I'm going to begin the month of October by moving fully to the 5-10 tables.

Here's a quick list of my goals for the final week of september. 1) Maintain the hourly rate of $30 or better. 2) Book another 50+ hour week. 3) Do not whine a SINGLE TIME about a bad beat, whether vocally or in the chat window or in a journal entry. 4) Goal #3 does NOT apply to bad beats administered by piers or mecos.

Current limit : 3-6 / 5-10 LHE
Current Bankroll : 3506

-TW

Well I just did NOT have a very good start to my week. I was sodomized repeatedly and left bleeding in a ditch. I was pilfered, plundered and pillaged at every turn. My balls feel like David Akers used them for about 3 hours-worth of kicking practice. And on top of all that bullshit, I had a bad day at poker too!

Played for aboot three and a half hours and managed a reasonably impressive $264 loss. Of course, I've kinda grown insensitive to such losses because my weeks NEVER seem to get off to a very good start, LoL! I know I've said this previously, but I can't emphasize enough how good it feels to lose $250 and STILL have more than 500 BB's in the ol' bankroll! It feels damned good, is what I'm saying. Feels a helluva lot better than my testicles, anyway...

Okay, okay, I'm sure you didn't come here to hear about my genitals...well, other than mecos and bri, that is, but they've both suscribed to "TW's Genitals Weekly" so they ain't hearin anything they haven't already read about. I'm really not too bummed about today, because I think I played pretty well and just had some serious difficulties as far as running good hands into better ones, being drawn out on and missing all my mega-draws. These things happen, and hey, it ain't that serious.

Well, I'm now off to a dizzyingly exciting 5 hour shift at the ol' Mini-Mart, after which I'll probably try to get in a couple more hours. Unfortunately, the bastards have me coming back in at 10am tomorrow, thus putting some rather uncomfortable CRIMPAGE on my ability to be the degenerate pokerholic that I've always dreamed of being. Nonetheless, I'll git-er-done one way or another.

Current limit : 3-6 / 5-10 LHE
Current Bankroll : 3245

-TW

Well, I managed to tack on an additional $43 loss in my ill-advised scheme to recover my earlier drainage. Shit happens, no? Yes. Yes it does. Ah well, I still got another 6 days to show these nasty sharks who's boss

Current limit : 3-6 / 5-10 LHE
Current Bankroll : 3203

-TW

Sorry to hear of your bad start to the week. I have been very fortunate not to find myself down as well as I have taken the shaft in the 10-20 game the last couple of days through pretty much no fault of my own. Gather yourself and come back with a clean mindset and as hard as it is to sometimes get into your head that quote by Mike Caro that goes something like this "You are always even, money won or loss is in the past, play each hand as a new entity to the best of your ability" is something to try to live by at the tables.

Do your co-workers at the Stop-N-Rob know you play poker?

Yeah, believe it or not, I was thinking about that quote a few minutes after I quit my earlier session...not that exact quote, but the general idea. My immediate reaction was a kind of hopeless one based on how much I'm down for the week and how hard it'll be to dig myself back out, but when i calmed down a bit I thought of that line and realized that another beautiful thing about poker as a job is that there are no deadlines. Ambition and setting goals can be be healthy things, but then again there's nothig to say that I NEED to be playing 5-10, or 10-20, or whatever by any set date. The more I focus on how much I'm stuck, the harder it'll be to get unstuck.

So...ummmm...yeah, what you said I'm gonna do my best to keep that quote in mind as I prepare to hit up the tables tonight.

-TW

My wife (who actually has a small tourney win under her pregnant belly) is very supportive of my playing. She really didn't want me to play online for money, and when I first started, she worried about addiction, etc. since she comes from a family where problems with alcohol and gambling are the norm.

Of course, since she saw that bracelet I bought her and since she realizes that I've WON >5k this year, she's all for it. She wants me to move up...

Her comment at the casino? "Good luck honey. Oh, I forgot, you don't need that."

Tell me I didn't hit the lottery with her...